Criticism > Poetry > Abse, Dannie - Ray Olson (review date 2000)

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Ray Olson (review date 2000)

SOURCE: Olson, Ray. Review of Be Seated, Thou: Poems, 1989-1998, by Dannie Abse. Booklist (1 June 2000): 1839.

[In the following review, Olson offers high praise of Be Seated, Thou: Poems, 1989-1998.]

Welsh, Jewish, socialist, physician, author of some 20 books, and editor of several poetry anthologies, Abse is a man of culture. That stands him in good stead, now that he is retired and old. Ditto, readers of this gathering of his last two British collections of warm, amusing, profound, and varied verse [Be Seated, Then: Poems, 1989–1998]. For Abse can call on the philosophers Schopenhauer, Pufendorf, Hobbes, and Rousseau, list the seven wonders of the world, and cite the nine muses by name and aspect when he replies to a raffle M. C. who asks why he chose the winning number. He can recount the legends of China, Greece, Romantic-era England, and ancient Israel, as well as those of his own Welsh...

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1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. Roland Mathias (essay date 1967)
   2. Michael Mott (review date 1971)
   3. Times Literary Supplement (review date 1973)
   4. Dannie Abse and Mark Boada (interview date 1975)
   5. John Mole (review date 1977)
   6. Joseph Cohen (essay date 1983)
   7. Gigliol´ Sacerdoti Mariani (essay date 1983)
   8. Vernon Scannell (essay date 1983)
   9. Choice (review date 1984)
   10. Michael O'Neill (review date 1987)
   11. Genevieve Stuttaford (review date 1991)
   12. Publishers Weekly (review date 1993)
   13. Clara Gyorgyey (review date 1998)
   14. Ray Olson (review date 2000)
   15. Nicholas Wroe (essay date 2001)
4. Further Reading
5. Copyright

1. How to Analyze a Poem
2. Poetry